St. Charles Hotel, New Orleans

The St. Charles Hotel was a hotel on St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans, Louisiana, situated across the street from the St. Charles Museum.^[1] One of the first of the great hotels of the United States, the original Grecian palace-style building, opened in 1837, has been described by author Richard Campanella as "one of the most splendid structures in the nation and a landmark of the New Orleans skyline".^[2] It was some time before it found a rival in the Astor House, of New York City. It was said that the hotel's Parlor P had probably witnessed more important political events than any room or any building in the country, outside of the Capitol at Washington, D.C.^[3] During the Civil War, Union General Benjamin Butler seized the hotel to use for his headquarters after the city surrendered. The third incarnation of the hotel was finally demolished in 1974.